These taxes may be imposed by a municipality, county, school district, transportation district, state or other taxing body. The "state and local taxes" section of your bill may be a combination of such items. Sales, use and special taxes generally apply to local service charges, additional calls or message unit charges, installation charges, and intrastate toll charges. (Most states also tax interstate toll charges.) And again, these taxes are most often a percent of items to which they apply. That base may include franchise taxes, surcharges or other service fees. In other words, you are taxed on taxes!

Federal Excise Tax

This tax is imposed by Congress on non-exempt items. It generally applies to regulated services, except private lines, mileage, centrex-related enhancements, service and installation charges, and some other services. The base on which tax is calculated may include franchise taxes, surcharges, and gross receipts taxes. Originally a Spanish-American War "luxury" tax, rate has varied between 1% and 10% over years, but has been held constant at 3% since 1983.

Remember, taxes are not uniformly imposed on all services. For example, white-page directory advertising is not taxed in most states, unless this statement item includes other items. (Arkansas and Oklahoma are exceptions, however.)

Who is Exempt?

Charities, churches, schoools, nonprofit educational and hospital operations, certain other entities that receive government funding, foreign counselor operations, and others, may be exempt from state and/or federal taxes. For example, common carriers, newspapers and broadcast companies may be exempt from federal tax on some services.

To understand specific services that are exempt from federal tax, refer to Internal Revenue Service publication 510 entitled Communications Tax. This publication is very specific as to what taxes are federally imposed and which are exempt. Contact me directly if you'd like your own copy.

As you can see, taxes can be a complicated subject as it applies to your telecom bills. But understanding them can be a major step in reducing your costs when doing a cost-reduction study.

A typical CSR is divided into four sections: The Header Record Section, List Section, Bill Section, and S&E Section. Below you'll find a summary of what each section contains.

The Header Record Section

This Header Record section is found at top of CSR, and details information about CSR and account itself. While CSR's do not always contain identical information, generally header section will include: print date, billing period, directory, class of service (business or residential), customer identification code, account number, USOC code and quantity of service items, description of service, unit rate, total monthly charge, and tax. The following two sections of CSR contain important information about your company.

The List Section

The List section identifies whether or not account is listed in white pages of telephone directory, as well as how listing reads. Ironically, there is an extra charge for non-published listings, unless there is already another account listed at same service address. The code NLST indicates that it is NOT listed in the telephone directory although it still may be listed with directory assistance operators. SIC defines service industry for proper Yellow Pages headings.

The Bill Section

The bill section of CSR includes: bill name (BN1), bill address (BA) and tax area (TAR) for account. The billing address is oftentimes different from bill name.

The Service and Equipment Section

This section is most important part of CSR. Since this area lists all charges associated with each phone line, bill section is also area where USOC and nomenclature translations are necessary, in order to identify exact line items. It is this area of CSR where you will spend bulk of your auditing time. Obtaining and reviewing CSR's is an important part of telecom auditing process. A thorough job can be a time consuming and tedious, but cost savings and increased efficiency is well worth time and effort.